Crispy crunchy mini chocolate chip cookies with an amazing toffee aroma you will absolutely love. Every mini bite of these chocolate chip cookies will leave you begging for more! No kidding!
I have tried A LOT of different recipes for copycat Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies this past one year. They were all good in their own ways, but I felt like something was missing, until this last batch that I’ve tried I feel like the texture and the aroma are the closest to the original Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies. In fact, I may like them even more than the original Famous Amos? LOL. My daughter absolutely loves this copycat Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies.
What are Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies?
Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies are invented by Wally Amos. He enjoyed baking chocolate chip cookies using a modified version of his Aunt Della’s recipe. The cookies are characterized by their small size, crunchy texture, and amazing molasses and toffee aroma to them. The fact that they are mini in size, it’s hard to stop eating just a few of them. You want to eat the entire batch! LOL!
Ingredients
If you look at the ingredient list on Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies, these are what they use:
Enriched Wheat Flour, Semisweet Chocolate Chips, Sugar, Vegetable Oil, Contains 2% or Less of Molasses, Salt, Eggs, Baking Soda, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Whey.
Here are the ingredients I used. They aren’t exactly the same as what Famous Amos has. They did not use butter and brown sugar, but there are molasses and other artificial flavors and whey in their ingredients.
1. Butter
I used unsalted butter. The butter needs to be soft at room temperature
2. Light brown sugar
Brown sugar gives a nice molasses aroma without having to add molasses
3. Salt
A pinch of salt definitely bring out the overall aroma in the cookies
4. Vanilla extract
5. Egg
6. All-purpose flour
The all-purpose flour I use has a gluten content of 10-11%
7. Cornstarch
Cornstarch helps to give cookies that nice crumbs without falling apart
8. Baking powder
This is one of the leavening agents in this recipe
9. Baking soda
Baking soda is also added not only to leaven the cookies, but it gives the cookies that airy and crunchy texture that baking powder alone won’t be able to achieve. The baking soda also works together with the acidic brown sugar that we use in the recipe
10. Oil
A little bit of oil in a cookie recipe also gives the cookies that crunchy texture. You don’t want a lot of oil but using it together with butter gives a great result
11. Semi-sweet chocolate chips
I would personally go for 1/2 dark and 1/2 semi-sweet chocolate chips, simply because I’m a dark chocolate person. But since Famous Amos uses semi-sweet chocolate chips, I would stick with semi-sweet chocolate chips
12. Instant coffee powder
I don’t know if I can say this, but instant coffee is the “secret” ingredient in this recipe that gives this Famous Amos cookies that distinct “toffee-ish / caramel-ish” aroma that I really love. I strongly suggest not to omit this for real!
How to make copycat Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies at home
1. You don’t need a mixer to prepare the cookie dough. Mash the softened butter with a rubber spatula
2. Then add the room-temperature egg and mix again until combined. Add the instant coffee mixture and vanilla extract and mix again
3. Sift the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Add oil. Use a spatula to start mixing. The mixture will still be dry at first. Just keep mixing and when you get a rough dough, meaning you still see some flour here and there
4. Fold in the chocolate chips and continue to mix into a dough. It will be sticky
5. Cover and refrigerate the cookie dough for at least 1 hour. If you can do it overnight, that’s even better because the flavor gets even better (I know waiting can be a pain, but this is worth waiting). They can be kept in the fridge for 3-4 days
6. Scoop about 8 grams of the cookie dough and roll it into a round ball and put them about 1/2-inch apart as it will spread some during baking. Put the whole tray in the freezer again for 15 minutes before baking. This helps to prevent the cookies from spreading too much
7. I suggest baking two trays at a time and no more than that. Put the baking sheet on the positioned racks. Bake for 15 minutes for a lighter color pan and about 13-14 minutes for a darker color pan. Rotate the pan front to back, top to bottom halfway through baking so they bake evenly. Let the cookies cool down on the rack for 5 minutes and then remove and cool down completely at a cooling rack. The cookies may look soft at first but will crisp up once cooled down
Look at the airy crumb texture at the back of the cookie. These copycat Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies are seriously crunchy and airy with a deep intense aroma you will love!
How to store unbaked Famous Amos cookies
Once you have chilled the dough for at least 1 hour or longer, roll into 10-gram dough ball and then keep in the freezer for 15 minutes and then transfer it to a freezer bag and they won’t stick to each other anymore. They can be kept frozen for 1-2 months. When ready to bake, they go straight from the freezer to the oven
How to store baked Famous Amos cookies
Let the baked cookies cool down completely. Then transfer to a freezer bag. They can be kept frozen for a maximum 1 month for the best result.
Did you make this copycat Famous Amos chocolate chip cookie recipe?
I love it when you guys snap a photo and tag to show me what you’ve made 🙂 Simply tag me @WhatToCookToday #WhatToCookToday on Instagram and I’ll be sure to stop by and take a peek for real!
Really Good Copycat Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
Please measure ingredients by weight and not volume
- 125 gr butter unsalted, softened
- 125 gr light brown sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 25 gr egg
- 25 gr oil
Dry ingredients:
- 155 gr all-purpose flour
- 30 gr cornstarch
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 175 gr semi-sweet chocolate chips
This adds amazing aroma to the cookies (please do not omit):
- 1 tsp instant coffee see notes
- ½ tsp water
Instructions
- Please make sure that the egg and butter are at room temperature. The butter should be soft but NOT melty
- Crack one whole egg in a bowl and whisk to loosen up the egg. Measure out 25 grams of egg to be used in the recipe. It is important to measure by weight
- Mix instant coffee with water and set aside
Prepare cookie dough:
- You don't need a mixer to prepare the cookie dough. Mash the softened butter with the brown sugar using a rubber spatula. Then add the room-temperature egg and mix again until combined. Add the instant coffee mixture and vanilla extract and mix again
- Sift the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Add oil. Use a spatula to start mixing. The mixture will still be dry at first. Just keep mixing and when you get a rough dough, meaning you still see some flour here and there, fold in the chocolate chips and continue to mix into a dough. It will be sticky
Chill the cookie dough (do not skip this step)
- Cover and refrigerate the cookie dough for at least 1 hour. If you can do it overnight, that's even better because the flavor gets even better (I know waiting can be a pain, but this is worth waiting). They can be kept in the fridge for 3-4 days
When ready to bake:
- Preheat the oven to 320 F (160 C) for a conventional oven. For a convection oven, lower the temperature by 20 degrees
- Position oven racks, one rack third from the top and the second rack third from the bottom
- Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper
- Scoop about 8 grams of the cookie dough and roll into a round ball and put them about 1 inch apart as they will spread some during baking
- Put the whole tray in the freezer again for 15 minutes before baking. This helps to prevent the cookies from spreading too much
- I suggest baking two trays at a time and no more than that. Put the baking sheet on the positioned racks. Bake for 15 minutes for a lighter color pan and about 13-14 minutes for a darker color pan. The timing is just for your reference. It also depends on how big you size the cookies. You know your oven better and so please adjust accordingly. If you want the cookie really crunchy, add a minute or two
- Rotate the pan front to back, top to bottom halfway through baking so they bake evenly
Cooling:
- The cookies appear very soft when they are out from the oven. Let the cookies cool down on the rack for 5 minutes and then remove and cool down completely at a cooling rack. They will crisp up further
Age the cookies for a day:
- Usually cookies (or pretty much any baked goods) won't taste as good on the same day you bake them. If you can wait until the next day, you will be rewarded with a much better flavor and texture.
Storage:
- Store the cookies in an air-tight cookie jar. They can be kept this way at room temperature for weeks (They didn't last more than 3 days at our house!)
6 comments
Hi,
Can I check if you use bottom / bottom heat or fan element when baking the cookies?
If bigger size, how long do we bake?
Thank you in advance for your reply!
Cheers. Thanks for sharing the recipe. 🙂
Hi Amy, my oven is conventional (bottom heat). So I bake at 320 F (160 C), if you have top and bottom heat, you may need to lower by about 20 degrees. I baked for about 15 minutes for a 8-10 grams cookies. If yours are bigger, you may want to add 2-3 minutes extra. When they first come out they will be very soft, but will crisp up once they cool down completely. I suggest doing a test batch first to figure out the timing that you like to give you a crunchy consistency.
Hi, my baking tray is quite big and cant fit into my freezer. Can i place the dough further apart instead and skip the 15mins freezer time?
Hi Ber, you can try that. I hope they turn out well for you!
how do we measure the egg? do we whisk both the white and yellow together, then measure it? will that work?
Yes, that’s how you measure it, whisking the whole egg and then measure out what you need